Thursday, October 2, 2008

We really like soup. To us there is no better cool weather meal than a hot bowl of soup served with some crusty bread. That being the case, we are suckers for a soup cookbook. Matt recently picked up Soup's On!: 75 Soul-Satisfying Recipes from Your Favorite Chefs.As you can see he's already marked a few recipes to try. He's mentioned the cover recipe Bacon & Lentil Soup a few times so I figured that would be a good place to dive in.This was a really wonderful soup, especially if you love bacon like we do. It's exactly the type of thing I'd want to eat after shoveling a foot of snow from the driveway. It's also super simple recipe with just a handful of ingredients garnished with crispy bacon & chopped scallions. I don't know if I'd even bother making the crispy bacon next time but the scallions added a great crunch for a little texture. Our only complaint with this recipe was that the picture in the book shows a very thick almost stew like soup & the finished soup was actually quite a bit thinner. Matt says next time he'd add more lentils to make it a little thicker.

In a large soup pot over medium heat cook 3/4 of the bacon until the fat is rendered, about 5 minutes. Add the onions & carrots & cook until the onions are translucent. If there is a lot of fat drain it off. Add the lentils & 4 cups of the stock. Simmer for 40-50 minutes until the lentils are tender. Add the remaining 4 cups of stock. Season with salt & pepper & cook another 10 minutes.Meanwhile, cook the remaining bacon until crispy. Drain on a paper towel.Garnish the soup with the crispy bacon & scallions.